Always Got Lower Performance Score with Encoded URL Parameter

Question

Anyone can point me why google-page-speed api provides lower performance score with encoded url parameter?

I called api for 100 times with encoded url parameter versus unencoded url parameter, and the result as follow:

Encode URL parameter:

• TP90 performance score: 74

• pagespeed request: https://www.googleapis.com/pagespeedonline/v5/runPagespeed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fm.ctrip.com%2Fwebapp%2Fflight%2Fschedule%2Fdetail.html%3FhideAddTrip%3Dtrue%26isHideNavBar%3DYES%26navBarStyle%3Dgray%26flightNo%3DNH7018%26queryDate%3D2019-11-10%26dcode%3DNRT%26acode%3DLAX&strategy=mobile&key=AIzaSyA-AeDYHQr1ufyzqpq2sbb2tWqPoS-tjTo

Normal URL parameter:

• TP90 performance score: 90

• pagespeed request: https://www.googleapis.com/pagespeedonline/v5/runPagespeed?url=https://m.ctrip.com/webapp/flight/schedule/detail.html?hideAddTrip=true&isHideNavBar=YES&navBarStyle=gray&flightNo=NH7018&queryDate=2019-11-10&dcode=NRT&acode=LAX&strategy=mobile&key=AIzaSyA-AeDYHQr1ufyzqpq2sbb2tWqPoS-tjTo

The other parameters are exactly the same.

Appreciate for you answering

Answer 1

The reason you get different results is that you actually end up testing two different URLs

https://m.ctrip.com/webapp/flight/schedule/detail.html?hideAddTrip=true&isHideNavBar=YES&navBarStyle=gray&flightNo=NH7018&queryDate=2019-11-10&dcode=NRT&acode=LAX

and

https://m.ctrip.com/webapp/flight/schedule/detail.html?hideAddTrip=true

By not URL encoding your request to PSI you are losing everything after the &.

I am unsure why this is the case as I would have expected the opposite behaviour.